Armies of Death (book)
Armies Of Death is a single-player role-playing gamebook written by Ian Livingstone, illustrated by Nik Williams and originally published in 1988 by Puffin Books. It was later republished by Wizard Books in 2003. It forms part of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series. It is the 36th in the series in the original Puffin series (ISBN 0-14-032486-0) and 14th in the modern Wizard series (ISBN 1-84046-436-4). Creation Background The reader assumes the role of the winner of the Trial of Champions, who has a newly won purse of 20,000 Gold Pieces. The reader must defeat an Evil Shadow Demon, Agglax and his undead army and stop them from taking over the region of Allansia using an army bought with the coins. Introduction The book in general follows the original rules set down in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. (see Game System) Unique Rules *The player begins the adventure with no Provisions. *The book contains rules for mass-battle combat between opposing armies. Equipment List The book makes no reference to any equipment carried at the start of the adventure. Cover and Illustrations '''Cover The original cover of the book was designed and illustrated by Christos Achilleos. This was the last book in the range (bar the exception of Return to Firetop Mountain) to feature the number of the book on the front cover. as shown on the inside front cover of Curse of the Mummy]] When the book was republished by Wizard the cover was once again re-worked, this time by Martin McKenna. There was no Wizard "Special Limited Edition" for this book. With their 2003 reprint of the title, Wizard did not print a "Special Limited Edition" due to the pressures of releasing the series in at the time.Interview with [[Simon Flynn] at the official Fightingfantasygamebooks.com] However, on the inside cover of a number of the later books, the "Special Limited Edition" cover of Armies of Death was shown along with the covers of other Wizard editions. #Price of 1st Impression #Price of 3rd Impression; £3.50 for 4th Impression Illustrations The interior illustrations were by Nik Williams. There were 34 full page illustrations and 6 minor repeated illustrations scattered throughout the text. The paragraphs with a full page illustration were: 6, 17, 28, 39, 52, 63, 76, 87, 100, 112, 121, 134, 143, 155, 166, 178, 188, 199, 209, 217, 230, 241, 252, 265, 278, 292, 307, 323, 338, 352, 368, 381, 394 and 400. The colour map on the inside front cover was by Leo Hartas. Intertextual References It is a sequel to previous Fighting Fantasy book Trial of Champions (the player assumes the role of the adventurer who successfully completed this earlier book), which in turn was a sequel to Deathtrap Dungeon (although in that case the sequel is the setting and not the character as [[Hero of City of Thieves|the character from Deathtrap Dungeon]] instead goes on to the events of Island of the Lizard King). Other Media Main Characters YOU: Hero of Trial of Champions *Agglax - Shadow Demon *Big Belly Man *Captain Barnock *Drek *Lexon *Max *Obigee *The Oracle *Sukumvit Charavask *Vine - Hill Man Locations *Anvil *Claw *Darkwood Forest *Fang *Forest of Fiends *''Helen's House'' *Icefinger Mountains *Karn *Kaypong *Red River *River Kok *Starstone Caves *Stonebridge *''The Black Dragon'' *Zengis Encounters *Calacorm *Chaos Warrior *Elite Fantatic *Enk *Fish Man *Giant Lizard *Giant Spider *Goblins - Regular/Sewer *Hill Trolls *Humans - Axemen/Barman/Robbers/Town Guard *Jip *Laz *Max *Mountain Orc *Mudgrinder *Nandibears *Ogre *Rogue *Rock Man *Shapechanger *Tree Man *Werewolf Further Notes *The first edition of Armies of Death marked the point at which the series started boasting on the back cover that the range had "over 10 million copies sold worldwide!" This small fact was celebrated by having this back cover banner (for this Fighting Fantasy gamebook only) printed in bronze foil like the credit on the front cover. The only other books printed in this way (with this back cover "over 10 million copies sold worldwide!" being in foil writing) were the Black Dragon Sub-Format of the Sorcery! series and the first two books of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy series. *Ian Livingstone makes a cameo appearance as Obigee, the landlord of Helen's House in Zengis who is exceptionally proud of his sailing achievements, in the illustration accompanying (368) of Armies of Death''25th Anniversary Edition of - 221 Errors Dedication To Helen, Andrew and Sarah See Also *Caverns of the Snow Witch'' (Mini-FF) *''Caverns of the Snow Witch'' *''City of Thieves'' *''Crypt of the Sorcerer'' *''Deathtrap Dungeon'' *''Dicing with Dragons'' *''Eye of the Dragon'' (Mini-FF) *''Eye of the Dragon'' *''Fighting Fantasy'' *''Freeway Fighter'' *''Island of the Lizard King'' *''Legend of Zagor'' *''Return to Firetop Mountain'' *''Temple of Terror'' *''The Forest of Doom'' *''The Warlock of Firetop Mountain'' *''Trial of Champions'' Reviews *[http://user.tninet.se/~wcw454p/docs/ff36.txt Armies of Death at FF Reviews Archive] External Links *Character Sheet *[http://www.gamebooks.org/show_series.php?id=11 Fighting Fantasy at Gamebooks.org] *[http://www.gamebooks.org/show_series.php?name=Fighting+Fantasy+Reissues Fighting Fantasy (Wizard Series) at Gamebooks.org] *[http://www.gamebooks.org/show_item.php?id=80 Armies of Death at Gamebooks.org] *[http://web.archive.org/web/20051127132124/www.fightingfantasy.com/ffb36.htm Armies of Death at the Internet Archive record of the old Fightingfantasy.com] *[http://www.fightingfantasygamebooks.com/ff14.htm Armies of Death at the official Fightingfantasygamebooks.com] *[http://www.iconbooks.co.uk/wizard/wbook.cfm?isbn=1-84046-436-4 Armies of Death at Wizard Books] References Category:1988 books Category:Fighting Fantasy Original Series Category:Fighting Fantasy Wizard Series